P.A. taken to task for tolerating crimes against women
Nearly one-quarter of Palestinian women are victims of domestic violence, abused or raped while governmental agencies do nothing to protect them, according to a new report.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch blamed the Palestinian Authority (PA) for failing to make violence against women and girls a legislative priority and urged the government to take steps to prevent it.
“PA officials across the political spectrum appear to view security only within the context of the ongoing conflict and occupation, all but ignoring the very real security threats that women and girls face at home,” said Farida Deif, a researcher in the Women’s Rights Division and co-author of the report.
The report found that violence against women “is getting worse while the remedies available to victims are being further eroded: Palestinian women and girls who report abuse to the authorities find themselves confronting a system that prioritizes the reputations of their families in the community over their own well-being and lives.”
Entitled “A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls,” the study documents cases of violence from spousal and child abuse to rape, incest and murder. It is based on research conducted in the Palestinian territories from November 2005 to early 2006.
Police officers and clan leaders regularly “mediate” rape cases by returning the abused women to the “care and protection” of their attackers, without referring cases to the courts. Few cases of sexual violence are ever prosecuted: According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinian courts rendered only one rape conviction in 2004.
Laws reduce penalties for men accused of “honor killings” or attacks against female relatives who commit adultery and absolve rapists who agree to marry their victims. Rape within marriage is not considered a crime. Victims say they are often afraid to report abuse or rape.
Even social service centers, such as the Bethlehem Home for Girls, force pregnant girls to marry their rapist for the sake of the child. “The majority do not want to marry him [the rapist],” the head of the home told Human Rights Watch. “But the baby is what’s important.”
There’s also been an increase in incest cases and fathers don’t deny it. “They say, ‘I have a right to her body over others’ or ‘I want her to go to her husband experienced,’” said Lina Abd al-Hadi, the legal advisor to the governor of Nablus.
“When confronted with cases of violence against women and girls, the Palestinian criminal justice system is more interested in avoiding public scandal than in seeing justice done,” said Lucy Mair, the report’s other co-author. “A woman’s basic right to life and bodily integrity are seen as a secondary concern at best.”
Dec 1, 2006
A New Deal at the Shuk
From down and dirty to class act, Jerusalem’s market undergoes a renaissance
It is one of Jerusalem’s last bastions of gritty Israeli culture, the real bustle and chaos of Middle Eastern life. But now even the shuk has been swept up in the city’s continuing development and modernization.
Once the calling card for loud heckling, surly shopkeepers, harried shoppers—and bargains—the outdoor market has been invaded by swank cafes and gourmet food shops. It’s a twist as surprising as the imported specialties that now appear at every turn. Some even deign to describe the shuk, called Mahane Yehuda, as “yuppie.”
“It’s more like a yuppie destination now,” Ada Spitz, a Jerusalem native, told Israel Today. “They started selling sushi in the shuk. Who would’ve thought they’d sell sushi in the shuk?”
Spitz herself works in one of the new designer clothing shops surfacing in the market with designer—not shuk—prices.
New and old are now side by side: designer clothing, imported cheese, eclectic wine collections, cozy cafes and haute cuisine restaurants are interspersed between the traditional colorful arrays of fruits and vegetables, raw meat and fish, stacks of pitas and other breads, pastries, dried fruits and nuts, olives of all colors, and of course shwarma (meat roasted on a spit) and falafel shops, among many other things.
Woven together by alleys and nooks, the three lengthwise shuk streets off of Jerusalem’s main Jaffa Road are about a half a mile west of downtown. The new delicacy and designer shops combined with the city’s aesthetic renovations contributed to an upsurge in customers this past year, merchants say. They also credit a decline in terrorist attacks since the last one there on April 12th, 2002. The shuk was one of Jerusalem’s recurring targets for terrorism in the early years of the intifada (Palestinian uprising).
These “yuppie” changes seem to be welcomed by all so far, if not with a sniff of sarcasm from some old-timers. “We call that part ‘North Tel Aviv,’” said Yossi Ankona, a lifelong shop owner, making a dig at the new shops’ trendy ambiance not typically associated with the gruff shuk.
But Eli Mizrahi, considered by many the pioneer of this renaissance, resists that label. “Is it like France? Italy? Is it like Barcelona? No, it’s Mahane Yehuda!” he said, insisting that there was nothing out of place with a classy café in the midst of a grimy market.
Mizrahi, who grew up in the family’s shop at the shuk, took a risk four years ago when he opened up his gourmet coffee shop. “Fifty percent of the people thought I was a genius, 50 percent thought I was a lunatic,” he said. “But I knew this is something that was missing in the market. It changed the market totally.”
Considering the renewed busyness of the shuk and copious media coverage, Mizrahi proved genius. He has been followed by other “hip” shops including his own high end restaurant, Zahko, on the perimeter of the shuk. Mizrahi believes the time was right for attracting a younger generation of customers.
“Customers have gone, some died or they’re too old to make it here,” Mizrahi said, standing outside the narrow porch of Café Mizrahi which overhangs one of the shuk’s lanes. “We get more young people now, and—I hate this word—‘yuppie’ people.”
Indeed, the shuk now rivals the ultra-popular Jerusalem mall for convenience and surpasses it for connoisseurs seeking specialty items. “There’s no need to go to the mall. You can find everything here,” said Yitzhak Cohen, a shuk veteran selling Syrian olive oil and halva (a sesame sweet) for more than 20 years.
In fact, shuk regulars have marveled at the tour groups of Israelis that have traipsed through the market lately, with guides even. Regulars, unruffled by all the attention and modernization, are almost as much tourists as the real sightseers. “If I don’t come here to shop, I come to tour,” said Mordechai Maloun, an Orthodox Jew and regular customer.
Shopper Ze’ev Mizrachi said the new shops and tourist pilgrimages add color to the market: “It’s about the experience,” he said. “We have friends here, we talk to people. It’s a meeting place.”
Meanwhile, one of the so-called yuppies, Asher Kravitz, was studying mathematics while enjoying coffee and apple strudel at JD Cafe, which serves beer on tap, another shuk novelty. “It’s a big innovation,” he said. “We live nearby so we come here all the time,” he said. “It’s a new voice, it’s a new spirit and it sounds good.”
It is one of Jerusalem’s last bastions of gritty Israeli culture, the real bustle and chaos of Middle Eastern life. But now even the shuk has been swept up in the city’s continuing development and modernization.
Once the calling card for loud heckling, surly shopkeepers, harried shoppers—and bargains—the outdoor market has been invaded by swank cafes and gourmet food shops. It’s a twist as surprising as the imported specialties that now appear at every turn. Some even deign to describe the shuk, called Mahane Yehuda, as “yuppie.”
“It’s more like a yuppie destination now,” Ada Spitz, a Jerusalem native, told Israel Today. “They started selling sushi in the shuk. Who would’ve thought they’d sell sushi in the shuk?”
Spitz herself works in one of the new designer clothing shops surfacing in the market with designer—not shuk—prices.
New and old are now side by side: designer clothing, imported cheese, eclectic wine collections, cozy cafes and haute cuisine restaurants are interspersed between the traditional colorful arrays of fruits and vegetables, raw meat and fish, stacks of pitas and other breads, pastries, dried fruits and nuts, olives of all colors, and of course shwarma (meat roasted on a spit) and falafel shops, among many other things.
Woven together by alleys and nooks, the three lengthwise shuk streets off of Jerusalem’s main Jaffa Road are about a half a mile west of downtown. The new delicacy and designer shops combined with the city’s aesthetic renovations contributed to an upsurge in customers this past year, merchants say. They also credit a decline in terrorist attacks since the last one there on April 12th, 2002. The shuk was one of Jerusalem’s recurring targets for terrorism in the early years of the intifada (Palestinian uprising).
These “yuppie” changes seem to be welcomed by all so far, if not with a sniff of sarcasm from some old-timers. “We call that part ‘North Tel Aviv,’” said Yossi Ankona, a lifelong shop owner, making a dig at the new shops’ trendy ambiance not typically associated with the gruff shuk.
But Eli Mizrahi, considered by many the pioneer of this renaissance, resists that label. “Is it like France? Italy? Is it like Barcelona? No, it’s Mahane Yehuda!” he said, insisting that there was nothing out of place with a classy café in the midst of a grimy market.
Mizrahi, who grew up in the family’s shop at the shuk, took a risk four years ago when he opened up his gourmet coffee shop. “Fifty percent of the people thought I was a genius, 50 percent thought I was a lunatic,” he said. “But I knew this is something that was missing in the market. It changed the market totally.”
Considering the renewed busyness of the shuk and copious media coverage, Mizrahi proved genius. He has been followed by other “hip” shops including his own high end restaurant, Zahko, on the perimeter of the shuk. Mizrahi believes the time was right for attracting a younger generation of customers.
“Customers have gone, some died or they’re too old to make it here,” Mizrahi said, standing outside the narrow porch of Café Mizrahi which overhangs one of the shuk’s lanes. “We get more young people now, and—I hate this word—‘yuppie’ people.”
Indeed, the shuk now rivals the ultra-popular Jerusalem mall for convenience and surpasses it for connoisseurs seeking specialty items. “There’s no need to go to the mall. You can find everything here,” said Yitzhak Cohen, a shuk veteran selling Syrian olive oil and halva (a sesame sweet) for more than 20 years.
In fact, shuk regulars have marveled at the tour groups of Israelis that have traipsed through the market lately, with guides even. Regulars, unruffled by all the attention and modernization, are almost as much tourists as the real sightseers. “If I don’t come here to shop, I come to tour,” said Mordechai Maloun, an Orthodox Jew and regular customer.
Shopper Ze’ev Mizrachi said the new shops and tourist pilgrimages add color to the market: “It’s about the experience,” he said. “We have friends here, we talk to people. It’s a meeting place.”
Meanwhile, one of the so-called yuppies, Asher Kravitz, was studying mathematics while enjoying coffee and apple strudel at JD Cafe, which serves beer on tap, another shuk novelty. “It’s a big innovation,” he said. “We live nearby so we come here all the time,” he said. “It’s a new voice, it’s a new spirit and it sounds good.”
Nov 1, 2006
Egyptian Campaigns on Israel’s Behalf
When Majed El Shafie told Israeli soldiers he was Egyptian, some recoiled, some welcomed him warmly and some simply stared in shock. At a time when Islamic militants from Hizbollah were attacking Israel, here was a former Moslem, now living in Canada, greeting Israeli troops and expressing his support for them—and planning to tell their story back home.
“We are making a movie about the war, what’s behind the war,” El Shafie said. “I want to show the human side of Israel—hospitals, shelters, mothers of soldiers. And not just Jews, but Arabs, Christian Arabs, Russian immigrants.”
El Shafie came to Israel as a human rights observer during the war this summer to visit Israeli troops and tour the destruction caused by Hizbollah rockets. He said that the only thing he saw from the media in Canada was the destruction of Lebanon.
“Israel lost the media war,” he said. “From the beginning of the war, everyone was against Israel. I believe the Lebanese also suffered, but nobody spoke up for Israel.”
El Shafie took video footage of Israelis in shelters and hospitals and even brought back shrapnel from a rocket that was launched at Israel to present as evidence to parliament.
“How could you hit civilian areas?” he asked of Hizbollah. “At least Israel dropped leaflets [announcing where they were going to bomb] which took from Israel the element of surprise.”
El Shafie was raised as a Muslim in Egypt and was taught to hate Israel. After he converted to Christianity, which is illegal in Egypt, he was arrested and tortured for weeks. Then he made a daring escape to Israel, the only non-Muslim neighboring country. He was imprisoned for more than a year until he received political asylum and for the next two years he lived in Israel under the name Mack Smith and began to cultivate a love for the Land.
Now in Canada, he runs a human-rights organization, One Free World International, that helps people who are persecuted for their beliefs. This was El Shafie’s first trip back to Israel since moving to North America two years ago. As part of his work, he broadcasts the Gospel through three Arabic-language radio shows including one to Iraq.
While studying law in Egypt, El Shafie, who had Christian friends, saw discrepancies in Egyptian law, which regards Christians as lower class. This prompted him to search out Christianity for himself. He made a radical conversion and started an underground Christian organization that eventually grew to thousands. Then he was arrested.
“I had my hair shaved and was hung upside down with my head submerged in boiling hot and then ice cold water,” he said. “I was threatened with killer dogs. I was tied to a cross for three days, had my back slashed with a knife and then had lemon juice and salt rubbed in the wound until I finally fell unconscious from the pain.”
Though he was released from prison, El Shafie was summoned back to court. Awaiting his court date, El Shafie decided to try to escape to Israel, rather than face a certain death sentence. At the Red Sea, he rented a jet ski and with Egyptian and Israeli patrols pursuing him from both sides, he made for shore. He evaded the patrols, ditched his jet ski on an Eilat beach and ran to a nearby hotel. He was caught and jailed for 16 months, but was safely in Israel.
“We are making a movie about the war, what’s behind the war,” El Shafie said. “I want to show the human side of Israel—hospitals, shelters, mothers of soldiers. And not just Jews, but Arabs, Christian Arabs, Russian immigrants.”
El Shafie came to Israel as a human rights observer during the war this summer to visit Israeli troops and tour the destruction caused by Hizbollah rockets. He said that the only thing he saw from the media in Canada was the destruction of Lebanon.
“Israel lost the media war,” he said. “From the beginning of the war, everyone was against Israel. I believe the Lebanese also suffered, but nobody spoke up for Israel.”
El Shafie took video footage of Israelis in shelters and hospitals and even brought back shrapnel from a rocket that was launched at Israel to present as evidence to parliament.
“How could you hit civilian areas?” he asked of Hizbollah. “At least Israel dropped leaflets [announcing where they were going to bomb] which took from Israel the element of surprise.”
El Shafie was raised as a Muslim in Egypt and was taught to hate Israel. After he converted to Christianity, which is illegal in Egypt, he was arrested and tortured for weeks. Then he made a daring escape to Israel, the only non-Muslim neighboring country. He was imprisoned for more than a year until he received political asylum and for the next two years he lived in Israel under the name Mack Smith and began to cultivate a love for the Land.
Now in Canada, he runs a human-rights organization, One Free World International, that helps people who are persecuted for their beliefs. This was El Shafie’s first trip back to Israel since moving to North America two years ago. As part of his work, he broadcasts the Gospel through three Arabic-language radio shows including one to Iraq.
While studying law in Egypt, El Shafie, who had Christian friends, saw discrepancies in Egyptian law, which regards Christians as lower class. This prompted him to search out Christianity for himself. He made a radical conversion and started an underground Christian organization that eventually grew to thousands. Then he was arrested.
“I had my hair shaved and was hung upside down with my head submerged in boiling hot and then ice cold water,” he said. “I was threatened with killer dogs. I was tied to a cross for three days, had my back slashed with a knife and then had lemon juice and salt rubbed in the wound until I finally fell unconscious from the pain.”
Though he was released from prison, El Shafie was summoned back to court. Awaiting his court date, El Shafie decided to try to escape to Israel, rather than face a certain death sentence. At the Red Sea, he rented a jet ski and with Egyptian and Israeli patrols pursuing him from both sides, he made for shore. He evaded the patrols, ditched his jet ski on an Eilat beach and ran to a nearby hotel. He was caught and jailed for 16 months, but was safely in Israel.
Sep 1, 2006
Economy Takes a Pounding during War
The statistics are grim and continue to mount: 10,000 businesses are on the brink of collapse, unemployment in the north is nearly 14 percent, workers haven’t been paid in weeks, and farmers are looking at devastated crops and distraught livestock.
From hotels and tourist attractions to farms and vineyards, businesses that slowed down or shut down completely because of the war are expected to have a ripple effect on the economy.
The Defense Ministry estimates that the conflict has cost the government 7 billion shekels ($1.5 billion). The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor has set up a task force to deal with the damages and repercussions of the war.
Restaurants and Shops
The most visible impact is on the closed restaurants and shops throughout the northern cities and towns. At some hotels and restaurants, the only patrons are foreign reporters who moved north when residents fled south or underground. From small convenience stores to pubs and restaurants, business hours were reduced and along with it, the clientele.
“I have 46 employees,” Moshe Taylor, a restaurant owner in Haifa, told Israel Today. “I have to pay them. How do you pay them?”
Haifa Mayor Yonah Yahav said the city’s “losses are desperate.” “We have the largest number of malls in Israel and they are empty,” he told us. “I have a friend who owns a shoe factory. But who feels like buying shoes right now? Sometimes owners opened up their stores because they wanted to be tough, but the clients didn’t show up.”
Municipalities are also grasping with new challenges. Haifa’s Deputy Mayor Tsvika Dahari said the city’s regular functions must carry on under fire like garbage collection and social services. But now they are saddled with new tasks as well.
“After a rocket falls, we must immediately repair the street,” he said. “We bring inspectors from the government to assess the damage. We also bring residents whose homes were hit to hotels so no one is ever sleeping on the street.”
Farms
Farmers say their livestock have been terrified by the continual blasts and gunfire from the border. Hens are laying eggs with an extremely brittle shell and cows are giving less milk. Many foreign workers fled south leaving fruit rotting on the trees.
Fires sparked by rockets have burned thousands of acres of grazing land for the region’s 30,000 cattle. “The damage is severe,” said Haim Dayan, director general of the cattle-raisers union. He said cows miscarried at a significantly higher rate this season because farmers could not reach the herd regularly to provide the necessary care.
Wine
Also hit hard by the war was Israel’s $150 million wine industry—a booming business with hundreds of wineries ranging from small enterprises to large ones which produce 10 million bottles a year.
Moshe Haviv, CEO of Dalton Winery, is one example. He estimates a loss of 1 million shekels (more than $220,000) in one month and possibly the entire harvest. Haviv said a bumper crop was expected this year, but with the grapes ripening, workers were unable to tend the vines because of falling rockets, let alone bring in the harvest. A rocket landed in one of Dalton’s fields, burning two acres of vines.
“Half my workers left with their families in fear of the Katyushas,” Haviv said, “and some of the others have been called up to reserve duty.”
Lebanese Israelis Reflect on the War
ISIFIYE, northern Israel – As she watched the desperate escape from Lebanon of thousands of tourists and foreigners, Rabiye Abu Sahad remembered her own flight from the country six years ago: Keys still in the ignition, her family abandoned their car and fled on foot over the Israeli border.
“I know what its like to run from that country,” she said of her motherland.
Rabiye’s husband was in the South Lebanese Army (SLA), an Israeli-backed militia that helped provide security and fight Hizbollah during the Israeli presence in Lebanon from 1982-2000. Israel’s unilateral pullout from Lebanon in 2000 was sudden.
They didn’t have much warning, so they grabbed a bag of valuables and sped to the border where they joined a traffic jam of other SLA fighters and their families also trying to escape Hizbollah revenge. But word soon trickled down the line of cars: Hizbollah terrorists were on their way to the border. That prompted many terrified Lebanese to flee on foot. Approximately 6,000 sought refuge in Israel.
Unlike many Israeli Arabs who have expressed sympathy for Hizbollah, several Lebanese who spoke with Israel Today expressed their appreciation of Israel and even supported its assault on Hizbollah. They spoke fondly of both nations, peace and the hope to one day see their families who are just a few miles away, but just out of reach; returning to Lebanon would mean certain imprisonment and possibly death.
Abu Sahad, a Druze, is now an Israeli citizen along wither her husband and three children. She hoped Israel would finish the job and wipe out Hizbollah. “I don’t like them,” she said. “They’re the reason I had to leave.”
Still it was hard to sit on the more peaceful Israeli side while the rest of her family sat under the threat of Israeli warplanes. She watched the news all day for the first 15 days of the conflict especially after her parents’ phone lines went down. Finally she decided to put on music instead and try to get her mind off the constant worry.
“I have to hold myself together mentally for the sake of my own family,” she said. “I have no relatives here, no one to turn to.”
Ferriel Amacha, 35, cried openly as she talked about her loneliness in a safe but foreign land. She too barely escaped Lebanon with her husband. But she now frets over her family, all still in Lebanon.
Meeting family, even in a neutral country, is impossible for Lebanese in Israel. They worry about the consequences for their family in Lebanon if they are found to have had any contact with “Israelis.” The fear of Hizbollah—from spies to Katyusha rockets in the north—still dominates life for many former Lebanese.
“They’ve ruined the whole country [Lebanon],” Amacha said. “I want them out no matter how. Get rid of them and then Lebanon can be a country again.”
Rabiye hopes Israel will regain control of the south and that she would one day be able to see her family again. “I don’t see that there’s any solution to it—only God.”
“I know what its like to run from that country,” she said of her motherland.
Rabiye’s husband was in the South Lebanese Army (SLA), an Israeli-backed militia that helped provide security and fight Hizbollah during the Israeli presence in Lebanon from 1982-2000. Israel’s unilateral pullout from Lebanon in 2000 was sudden.
They didn’t have much warning, so they grabbed a bag of valuables and sped to the border where they joined a traffic jam of other SLA fighters and their families also trying to escape Hizbollah revenge. But word soon trickled down the line of cars: Hizbollah terrorists were on their way to the border. That prompted many terrified Lebanese to flee on foot. Approximately 6,000 sought refuge in Israel.
Unlike many Israeli Arabs who have expressed sympathy for Hizbollah, several Lebanese who spoke with Israel Today expressed their appreciation of Israel and even supported its assault on Hizbollah. They spoke fondly of both nations, peace and the hope to one day see their families who are just a few miles away, but just out of reach; returning to Lebanon would mean certain imprisonment and possibly death.
Abu Sahad, a Druze, is now an Israeli citizen along wither her husband and three children. She hoped Israel would finish the job and wipe out Hizbollah. “I don’t like them,” she said. “They’re the reason I had to leave.”
Still it was hard to sit on the more peaceful Israeli side while the rest of her family sat under the threat of Israeli warplanes. She watched the news all day for the first 15 days of the conflict especially after her parents’ phone lines went down. Finally she decided to put on music instead and try to get her mind off the constant worry.
“I have to hold myself together mentally for the sake of my own family,” she said. “I have no relatives here, no one to turn to.”
Ferriel Amacha, 35, cried openly as she talked about her loneliness in a safe but foreign land. She too barely escaped Lebanon with her husband. But she now frets over her family, all still in Lebanon.
Meeting family, even in a neutral country, is impossible for Lebanese in Israel. They worry about the consequences for their family in Lebanon if they are found to have had any contact with “Israelis.” The fear of Hizbollah—from spies to Katyusha rockets in the north—still dominates life for many former Lebanese.
“They’ve ruined the whole country [Lebanon],” Amacha said. “I want them out no matter how. Get rid of them and then Lebanon can be a country again.”
Rabiye hopes Israel will regain control of the south and that she would one day be able to see her family again. “I don’t see that there’s any solution to it—only God.”
The North Under Siege
NAHARIYA – The sun shone from a cloudless sky as crystal blue water lapped against the shore—a perfect day on the beach. Except that not one person was to be found on this stretch of Israeli coast less than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the Lebanese border.
“It has never happened before,” said lifelong Nahariya resident David Ron. “In the past, if rockets fell here, maybe a few tourists wouldn’t come out for one day, maybe 10 days. But residents would be out. Never have we had a situation in Israel where residents lived in shelters for weeks on end.”
Unlike towns further south, Nahariya did not have sirens to warn of incoming rockets until nearly a month into the attacks. Ron drove around the city with one window open to keep the glass from shattering in case of a blast.
With more than 900 houses in the coastal town damaged by Hizbollah’s Katyusha rockets, residents—who are no strangers to terrorism—disappeared along with the tourists. It was impossible to tell whether people were in their homes or shelters or had skipped town altogether. Almost every shop was locked shut.
In the first month of fighting, 3,600 rockets forced the 1.5 million residents of northern Israel to live in shelters or head south for refuge. Israeli officials estimated the number of displaced Israelis at 300,000, some driving for days until they found a place to stay. With at least 150 rockets raining down on Israel on an average day, Hizbollah changed the frontline of the Arab-Israeli conflict, hitting areas as far south as Afula, 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the border.
An Eerie Routine
Israeli army Major Elliot Chodoff, responsible for the home-front in the north, said the situation is full of psychological challenges because rockets can hit any time, anywhere. “There are no easy answers,” Chodoff told Israel Today, adding that the aim is to find a workable routine in a crisis situation. “What we’re trying to do is help people cope at the highest possible level.”
To enable residents to shop for food and other necessities, stores adopted a wartime schedule, opening each day for specified hours. Residents described an eerie pattern of life under siege: Rocket attacks begin in the late morning and then subside, allowing people to scamper out from their shelters, shop, walk and have a drink in the humid sea air. Then residents head back into the shelters, ready for the next round of attacks that inevitably occur in the late afternoon.
At one convenience store, which stayed open throughout the conflict providing refuge for war-hardened Israelis, older men and their sons yawned at the predictability of the Hizbollah war schedule while maintaining their favorite pastime—drinking coffee, smoking and now, talking about the war.
“I’ve never gone into a shelter in my life. This is not the first war I’ve been through,” said Haim Dentess, 68, explaining why he sat outside on a deceptively peaceful day. “People here are strong. We know why we’re at war—we want peace. They want to kill us and we know the reason: We are strong.”
Though Dentess and his cadre of tough men defied the government recommendation to stay in shelters at all times, they were also disheartened by the situation. It was summertime, the height of the tourist season that props up the city’s economy, and yet stores were barred shut and the promenade deserted.
The Silver Lining in Adversity
The rockets that hit homes wrought devastating damage. A side hit to the exterior of one house shifted everything inside. Drawers spilled out of the cabinets, plates and glasses smashed onto the floor and meat rotted in the open freezer. An uneaten baguette remained on the table. The residents left in a hurry and did not return.
Another pockmarked apartment building was guarded since all of its windows and doors shattered in a rocket hit. Residents have long been in shelters, but insurance requires that the building be secured 24 hours a day to prevent looting.
Despite the damage, danger and disruption, the war in this city testifies of two miracles: most rockets landed in streets, yards and fields, and with most residents in shelters, the death toll was relatively low considering the number of attacks.
The View from Arab Towns
The mood in Israeli Arab towns in the north was much different and, in fact, belied war at all. Not one store was closed and life didn’t skip a beat despite daily sirens warning residents of incoming rockets.
“When a rocket falls on an Arab village, it’s the opposite [of Jewish towns]. Everyone goes to the rocket, not from it,” said Alhan Awad, a resident of Kfar Yasif. “People sit on the roof of their house and watch.”
While many Arabs maintain anti-Israel views, Lebanese Israelis, who fled Lebanon in 2000 when Israel pulled out, are pulling for the Jewish state to eradicate Hizbollah (see page 6).
“They are terrorists, killers,” said Johnny Aboud, who now owns a shwarma (meat sliced off a spit) shop in Kfar Yasif. “Nobody wants Israel to lose.”
Aboud lived in a Christian section of Beirut. He still has family there, but hadn’t been able to contact them since Israel began bombing the city. Aboud said Lebanon will be much better off without Hizbollah.
“All of the government is afraid of Hizbollah,” he said. “Who has the weapons now? Only the Hizbollah.”
Harried in Haifa
At Haifa University, overseas students cleared out of town after the first rocket landed. Final exams were postponed and only a few Israeli students were left in the dorms.
“One student, a South American girl, left immediately after the first Katyusha fell,” said Moti, a student at the school. “I said to her, ‘You’re obviously not from here. We are used to this—this is our reality.’”
During the height of the rocket attacks in Israel’s third-largest city, restaurants and coffee shops were closed, or if open, were nearly empty.
“All during the month of the World Cup, it was busy. We even took reservations,” said Moshe Taylor, a restaurant owner who was determined to maintain a semblance of normalcy. “We were full, extra full, even two to three hours before the game.” “Now,” he gestured at the trendy but empty sushi bar, “we have a lot of place.”
Taylor said that his bar-restaurant depends on the three summer months to make money for the whole year. But in one month, business dropped 50 percent, his Asian workers left the country or headed south and his barmen and waitresses went to Tel Aviv.
“If I had kids I’d take them away from here,” he said. “But for me the show must go on.”
“It has never happened before,” said lifelong Nahariya resident David Ron. “In the past, if rockets fell here, maybe a few tourists wouldn’t come out for one day, maybe 10 days. But residents would be out. Never have we had a situation in Israel where residents lived in shelters for weeks on end.”
Unlike towns further south, Nahariya did not have sirens to warn of incoming rockets until nearly a month into the attacks. Ron drove around the city with one window open to keep the glass from shattering in case of a blast.
With more than 900 houses in the coastal town damaged by Hizbollah’s Katyusha rockets, residents—who are no strangers to terrorism—disappeared along with the tourists. It was impossible to tell whether people were in their homes or shelters or had skipped town altogether. Almost every shop was locked shut.
In the first month of fighting, 3,600 rockets forced the 1.5 million residents of northern Israel to live in shelters or head south for refuge. Israeli officials estimated the number of displaced Israelis at 300,000, some driving for days until they found a place to stay. With at least 150 rockets raining down on Israel on an average day, Hizbollah changed the frontline of the Arab-Israeli conflict, hitting areas as far south as Afula, 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the border.
An Eerie Routine
Israeli army Major Elliot Chodoff, responsible for the home-front in the north, said the situation is full of psychological challenges because rockets can hit any time, anywhere. “There are no easy answers,” Chodoff told Israel Today, adding that the aim is to find a workable routine in a crisis situation. “What we’re trying to do is help people cope at the highest possible level.”
To enable residents to shop for food and other necessities, stores adopted a wartime schedule, opening each day for specified hours. Residents described an eerie pattern of life under siege: Rocket attacks begin in the late morning and then subside, allowing people to scamper out from their shelters, shop, walk and have a drink in the humid sea air. Then residents head back into the shelters, ready for the next round of attacks that inevitably occur in the late afternoon.
At one convenience store, which stayed open throughout the conflict providing refuge for war-hardened Israelis, older men and their sons yawned at the predictability of the Hizbollah war schedule while maintaining their favorite pastime—drinking coffee, smoking and now, talking about the war.
“I’ve never gone into a shelter in my life. This is not the first war I’ve been through,” said Haim Dentess, 68, explaining why he sat outside on a deceptively peaceful day. “People here are strong. We know why we’re at war—we want peace. They want to kill us and we know the reason: We are strong.”
Though Dentess and his cadre of tough men defied the government recommendation to stay in shelters at all times, they were also disheartened by the situation. It was summertime, the height of the tourist season that props up the city’s economy, and yet stores were barred shut and the promenade deserted.
The Silver Lining in Adversity
The rockets that hit homes wrought devastating damage. A side hit to the exterior of one house shifted everything inside. Drawers spilled out of the cabinets, plates and glasses smashed onto the floor and meat rotted in the open freezer. An uneaten baguette remained on the table. The residents left in a hurry and did not return.
Another pockmarked apartment building was guarded since all of its windows and doors shattered in a rocket hit. Residents have long been in shelters, but insurance requires that the building be secured 24 hours a day to prevent looting.
Despite the damage, danger and disruption, the war in this city testifies of two miracles: most rockets landed in streets, yards and fields, and with most residents in shelters, the death toll was relatively low considering the number of attacks.
The View from Arab Towns
The mood in Israeli Arab towns in the north was much different and, in fact, belied war at all. Not one store was closed and life didn’t skip a beat despite daily sirens warning residents of incoming rockets.
“When a rocket falls on an Arab village, it’s the opposite [of Jewish towns]. Everyone goes to the rocket, not from it,” said Alhan Awad, a resident of Kfar Yasif. “People sit on the roof of their house and watch.”
While many Arabs maintain anti-Israel views, Lebanese Israelis, who fled Lebanon in 2000 when Israel pulled out, are pulling for the Jewish state to eradicate Hizbollah (see page 6).
“They are terrorists, killers,” said Johnny Aboud, who now owns a shwarma (meat sliced off a spit) shop in Kfar Yasif. “Nobody wants Israel to lose.”
Aboud lived in a Christian section of Beirut. He still has family there, but hadn’t been able to contact them since Israel began bombing the city. Aboud said Lebanon will be much better off without Hizbollah.
“All of the government is afraid of Hizbollah,” he said. “Who has the weapons now? Only the Hizbollah.”
Harried in Haifa
At Haifa University, overseas students cleared out of town after the first rocket landed. Final exams were postponed and only a few Israeli students were left in the dorms.
“One student, a South American girl, left immediately after the first Katyusha fell,” said Moti, a student at the school. “I said to her, ‘You’re obviously not from here. We are used to this—this is our reality.’”
During the height of the rocket attacks in Israel’s third-largest city, restaurants and coffee shops were closed, or if open, were nearly empty.
“All during the month of the World Cup, it was busy. We even took reservations,” said Moshe Taylor, a restaurant owner who was determined to maintain a semblance of normalcy. “We were full, extra full, even two to three hours before the game.” “Now,” he gestured at the trendy but empty sushi bar, “we have a lot of place.”
Taylor said that his bar-restaurant depends on the three summer months to make money for the whole year. But in one month, business dropped 50 percent, his Asian workers left the country or headed south and his barmen and waitresses went to Tel Aviv.
“If I had kids I’d take them away from here,” he said. “But for me the show must go on.”
Aug 1, 2006
Interview with Netanyahu: Pullout Would Lead to ‘Hamastan’
Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and finance minister, is now the opposition leader in the Israeli parliament. He took some time to share his views with reporter Nicole Jansezian.
Reporter: Israel recently remembered the 30th anniversary of the rescue mission of Entebbe in which your brother Jonathan [‘Yoni’] was killed. What lessons can we apply from that operation to the situation Israel is facing today?
Netanyahu: Entebbe was a great blow to international terrorism. It showed that free societies, however threatened by barbaric evil, can overcome this evil if they muster their courage and their resolve. I think the fact that this raid was carried out against what were seemingly impossible odds, and succeeded, set the standard for the rest of the free world to stand up and fight terrorism.
Reporter: You were against the pullout from Gaza. Did you ever imagine that Israeli troops would be back there so soon?
Netanyahu: Yes, I said as much. I wasn’t against leaving Gaza in an agreement, but I thought that unilaterally withdrawing would strengthen Hamas, which it did. It would bring the rockets closer to the towns and villages in the southern part of the country. I think we now have to undo this error. We have to restore a balance of deterrence. Hamas believes it can fire 600 rockets into our towns and villages and we will accept it.
Reporter: What can the army do to prevent these rocket attacks?
Netanyahu: You have to make it clear that you cannot fire rockets with impunity at Israel. We will go after the people who do it. We also, in this case, take possession of the rocket sites.
The government had said it would respond massively with the first rocket that was fired. They didn’t respond unfortunately with the first, the tenth or the 100th rocket. And then it escalated to 600 rockets. I think the first rule of deterrence is to nip bad things in the bud. Don’t let it grow because otherwise the response you would have to give becomes a lot more intense than if you had acted early enough. The second good idea is to do what you say you’ll do so it creates credibility.
Reporter: You’ve been a quiet opposition leader so far. Why haven’t you been more vocal about the planned pullout from Judea and Samaria?
Netanyahu: We’ve been very clear about it. And a lot of people now realize that this pullout is really in doubt, when you see what the previous pullout did. Many people are saying, ‘Do we really want to replicate this and create a “Hamastan,” in this case right next to the greater Tel Aviv area?’ The range of the rockets will increase with an independent Hamas state. They’ll import weapons from Iran and elsewhere.
Plus they’re also asking, what is the logic here? Do we get any benefit? We don’t get international recognition. People will recognize or enable Israel to unilaterally make these unbelievable concessions to Hamas, but they don’t say that what you keep they recognize. Not a single government has said that.
And, how are you going to pay for it? The cost is roughly $2 billion for [every] 10,000 people [evacuated]. Olmert’s plan involves at least 70,000 people, possibly 100,000, so we’re talking about $20 billion. There is no budget for these massive displacements.
Reporter: How would you handle the situation in Gaza right now if you were the prime minister?
Netanyahu: In the middle of a crisis, the good thing for us to do is to back the government to do the right thing. They said they would not make deals with the terrorists [for the release of the kidnapped soldier] and I support that. They seem to be taking a more forceful response to the rockets and I support that.
Reporter: Many Christians worldwide are on Israel’s side. How can they support Israel in this situation?
Netanyahu: Israel is under a dual attack: It is under terrorist attacks, rockets, suicide bombers, kidnappings and so on. But it is also under moral attack. We who are the victim of this aggression are being called the aggressors. Christian friends of Israel know the truth and perhaps the most important battle we’ve been fighting is the battle for truth against the lies and vilification that are hurled constantly in Israel’s direction.
We have no better friends than the Christian community and the Christian Zionists around the world who understand that the story of Israel is really a parable. It’s a parable of a people who faced all odds and have really broken the so-called iron laws of history. We’ve been re-gathered in our ancestral homeland and built a model democracy by seeking to build a better future for us and our neighbors and are now, and for some time have been, tormented by the most barbaric and murderous forces on the face of the globe.
This is how Christian friends of Israel can help: by merely explaining this truth. We are fighting evil forces. People who chop heads off, blow up babies, smash into skyscrapers in Manhattan and kill thousands of innocent people are evil people and they should be stopped.
Reporter: Israel recently remembered the 30th anniversary of the rescue mission of Entebbe in which your brother Jonathan [‘Yoni’] was killed. What lessons can we apply from that operation to the situation Israel is facing today?
Netanyahu: Entebbe was a great blow to international terrorism. It showed that free societies, however threatened by barbaric evil, can overcome this evil if they muster their courage and their resolve. I think the fact that this raid was carried out against what were seemingly impossible odds, and succeeded, set the standard for the rest of the free world to stand up and fight terrorism.
Reporter: You were against the pullout from Gaza. Did you ever imagine that Israeli troops would be back there so soon?
Netanyahu: Yes, I said as much. I wasn’t against leaving Gaza in an agreement, but I thought that unilaterally withdrawing would strengthen Hamas, which it did. It would bring the rockets closer to the towns and villages in the southern part of the country. I think we now have to undo this error. We have to restore a balance of deterrence. Hamas believes it can fire 600 rockets into our towns and villages and we will accept it.
Reporter: What can the army do to prevent these rocket attacks?
Netanyahu: You have to make it clear that you cannot fire rockets with impunity at Israel. We will go after the people who do it. We also, in this case, take possession of the rocket sites.
The government had said it would respond massively with the first rocket that was fired. They didn’t respond unfortunately with the first, the tenth or the 100th rocket. And then it escalated to 600 rockets. I think the first rule of deterrence is to nip bad things in the bud. Don’t let it grow because otherwise the response you would have to give becomes a lot more intense than if you had acted early enough. The second good idea is to do what you say you’ll do so it creates credibility.
Reporter: You’ve been a quiet opposition leader so far. Why haven’t you been more vocal about the planned pullout from Judea and Samaria?
Netanyahu: We’ve been very clear about it. And a lot of people now realize that this pullout is really in doubt, when you see what the previous pullout did. Many people are saying, ‘Do we really want to replicate this and create a “Hamastan,” in this case right next to the greater Tel Aviv area?’ The range of the rockets will increase with an independent Hamas state. They’ll import weapons from Iran and elsewhere.
Plus they’re also asking, what is the logic here? Do we get any benefit? We don’t get international recognition. People will recognize or enable Israel to unilaterally make these unbelievable concessions to Hamas, but they don’t say that what you keep they recognize. Not a single government has said that.
And, how are you going to pay for it? The cost is roughly $2 billion for [every] 10,000 people [evacuated]. Olmert’s plan involves at least 70,000 people, possibly 100,000, so we’re talking about $20 billion. There is no budget for these massive displacements.
Reporter: How would you handle the situation in Gaza right now if you were the prime minister?
Netanyahu: In the middle of a crisis, the good thing for us to do is to back the government to do the right thing. They said they would not make deals with the terrorists [for the release of the kidnapped soldier] and I support that. They seem to be taking a more forceful response to the rockets and I support that.
Reporter: Many Christians worldwide are on Israel’s side. How can they support Israel in this situation?
Netanyahu: Israel is under a dual attack: It is under terrorist attacks, rockets, suicide bombers, kidnappings and so on. But it is also under moral attack. We who are the victim of this aggression are being called the aggressors. Christian friends of Israel know the truth and perhaps the most important battle we’ve been fighting is the battle for truth against the lies and vilification that are hurled constantly in Israel’s direction.
We have no better friends than the Christian community and the Christian Zionists around the world who understand that the story of Israel is really a parable. It’s a parable of a people who faced all odds and have really broken the so-called iron laws of history. We’ve been re-gathered in our ancestral homeland and built a model democracy by seeking to build a better future for us and our neighbors and are now, and for some time have been, tormented by the most barbaric and murderous forces on the face of the globe.
This is how Christian friends of Israel can help: by merely explaining this truth. We are fighting evil forces. People who chop heads off, blow up babies, smash into skyscrapers in Manhattan and kill thousands of innocent people are evil people and they should be stopped.
‘There’s Nowhere to Run’
SDEROT – The loudspeaker crackles to life and an ominous computer-generated voice pipes up: “Shahar adom. Shahar adom (red dawn).” You now have 20 seconds or less to find shelter, if possible, and pray.
Then you hear a whistling rocket that culminates in a crash. If it hasn’t landed near you, you wonder where it has: in an empty field or on the house of someone you know?
This has been the terrorized state of existence for residents of Sderot, a town of 24,000 about 1 kilometer (.6 mile) away from the Gaza Strip. Sderot has been the target of most of the crude homemade Palestinian rockets, Kassams, for more than five years now. The rocket attacks swell and subside in intervals, but since Israel pulled out of Gaza a year ago, they have escalated.
“There’s nowhere to run,” resident Yaffa Rassad said.
Residents say the attacks occur almost every day, at any hour, and often several times a day. There is no pattern, only the traumatizing chance that anything can happen at any time.
“At first the warning system gave you 20 seconds, but now many times the rockets have fallen before I’m even looking for where to go hide,” said municipality worker Dvora Elbaz. “I think of this every moment. I drive home and I think, ‘God, where is it going to be next?’ I sit in my house on the sofa with my arms crossed, ready. I sleep in a training suit because at any moment it could happen. Every night is like this.”
Under this sort of threat, many residents are experiencing emotional and psychological problems and have sought professional help to deal with the trauma.
At least 13 people have been killed in these attacks. This year, property has been damaged and people have been treated for shock, but no one has been killed. But many fear it is only a matter of time before the rockets become more accurate. One has reached as far as the center of Ashkelon, a port city seven miles (12 kilometers) north of Gaza.
Ironically, residents describe Sderot as safe enough to leave your doors unlocked. Most residents have families and jobs in the city and cannot imagine living in anywhere else in Israel. Sderot is a middle class city built in the southern Negev desert. There is a large population of immigrants from the Caucasus and former Soviet Union.
The army says that since Kassam attacks began in 2002, some 1,200 rockets have been fired at Israel. Lately, most have landed in or near Sderot and residents had accused the government and army of doing too little to stop it. A protest tent was set up outside City Hall, manned 24 hours a day by residents who demanded action to stop the rain of rockets.
“We are putting pressure on the government by being here,” said Arye Cohen. “I believe that in the end the government will wake up.”
Several protests have been staged at the Sderot home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Residents feel abandoned by the politician whom they used to consider one of their own.
The government finally did act against the Kassams in conjunction with its military offensive into southern Gaza to try to recover kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. The army has pounded launching pads in northern Gaza, but rockets continue to fall on Sderot and nearby towns.
PAGE 7:
Arye Cohen, 48
A Kassam fell 2 meters from my brother’s house. His car was damaged, his house was damaged. He was treated for heart issues.
Almost every neighborhood of Sderot has been affected. People have also gone crazy. The injured are taken to the hospital, get treated, then they pay their own bill. That’s it.
I have five kids. It’s impossible to raise kids normally here. My son is 10—he doesn’t know any other way. This is the New Orleans of Israel.
Sveta Tritanko, 13
Everyday you wake up wondering if Kassams will fall. It’s very hard to live here. Our parents are scared to let us go out. Sometimes we don’t even go to school. We are tense all the time. The government needs to help us. We don’t want to evacuate the city.
We thought we could live with them [the Palestinians], make peace with them, but they obviously don’t want to. We gave them Gush Katif [the Gaza settlements], now they want more. We don’t want a life like this, we want a normal life. They are people who love to kill.
We pray more, we ask that the Kassams stop.
Dvora Elbaz, Sderot municipality worker
Everyone wants help we cannot give. We put a smile on our faces at work, but on the inside, we feel so bad.
Now, who is thinking of work? Who is looking for money? We just want quiet. I know a lot of people who are living with pills because there is not other way. In another 10 years, the kids from here will be showing emotional and mental issues.
Every time a rocket falls and no one dies, we thank God.
Shlomi Montoriano, 37
I have two daughters, four and eight years old. At 9 p.m. I woke them up to get to the security room. Then we had to do that again at 11:30 p.m. Our life is not normal and we don’t act normal. It’s surreal.
I’m left-wing, but they [the Palestinians] are influencing me little by little against them. They don’t think of my side. I’d give them a state, but they are not going in that direction. We haven’t been hurt yet, but they want that to happen. They don’t want us here, they don’t want us in Netanya, they don’t want us in Jerusalem, they don’t want us in Tel Aviv.
This is not a suicide bomber that picks his target. Kassams fall where they may. We have to find a solution. They’re right and I’m right. I’m ready to give them a state, but they aren’t ready to let me have mine.
One night I told my daughters to not go to school the next day. That day, a Kassam fell at their school. We call these miracles.
Yaffa Rassad
I’m not leaving. I’ve lived here 50 years. I grew up here, married here, raised my kids and grandchildren. I buried my parents here.
You’re sitting there and you hear the alert, and you have no idea where it’s going to fall.
I pray all the time that God will do something. We have a lot of miracles here because no one has been killed. That’s what we say anyway.
Not everyone in Sderot has a bomb shelter in their apartment. There’s nowhere to run.
Then you hear a whistling rocket that culminates in a crash. If it hasn’t landed near you, you wonder where it has: in an empty field or on the house of someone you know?
This has been the terrorized state of existence for residents of Sderot, a town of 24,000 about 1 kilometer (.6 mile) away from the Gaza Strip. Sderot has been the target of most of the crude homemade Palestinian rockets, Kassams, for more than five years now. The rocket attacks swell and subside in intervals, but since Israel pulled out of Gaza a year ago, they have escalated.
“There’s nowhere to run,” resident Yaffa Rassad said.
Residents say the attacks occur almost every day, at any hour, and often several times a day. There is no pattern, only the traumatizing chance that anything can happen at any time.
“At first the warning system gave you 20 seconds, but now many times the rockets have fallen before I’m even looking for where to go hide,” said municipality worker Dvora Elbaz. “I think of this every moment. I drive home and I think, ‘God, where is it going to be next?’ I sit in my house on the sofa with my arms crossed, ready. I sleep in a training suit because at any moment it could happen. Every night is like this.”
Under this sort of threat, many residents are experiencing emotional and psychological problems and have sought professional help to deal with the trauma.
At least 13 people have been killed in these attacks. This year, property has been damaged and people have been treated for shock, but no one has been killed. But many fear it is only a matter of time before the rockets become more accurate. One has reached as far as the center of Ashkelon, a port city seven miles (12 kilometers) north of Gaza.
Ironically, residents describe Sderot as safe enough to leave your doors unlocked. Most residents have families and jobs in the city and cannot imagine living in anywhere else in Israel. Sderot is a middle class city built in the southern Negev desert. There is a large population of immigrants from the Caucasus and former Soviet Union.
The army says that since Kassam attacks began in 2002, some 1,200 rockets have been fired at Israel. Lately, most have landed in or near Sderot and residents had accused the government and army of doing too little to stop it. A protest tent was set up outside City Hall, manned 24 hours a day by residents who demanded action to stop the rain of rockets.
“We are putting pressure on the government by being here,” said Arye Cohen. “I believe that in the end the government will wake up.”
Several protests have been staged at the Sderot home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Residents feel abandoned by the politician whom they used to consider one of their own.
The government finally did act against the Kassams in conjunction with its military offensive into southern Gaza to try to recover kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. The army has pounded launching pads in northern Gaza, but rockets continue to fall on Sderot and nearby towns.
PAGE 7:
Arye Cohen, 48
A Kassam fell 2 meters from my brother’s house. His car was damaged, his house was damaged. He was treated for heart issues.
Almost every neighborhood of Sderot has been affected. People have also gone crazy. The injured are taken to the hospital, get treated, then they pay their own bill. That’s it.
I have five kids. It’s impossible to raise kids normally here. My son is 10—he doesn’t know any other way. This is the New Orleans of Israel.
Sveta Tritanko, 13
Everyday you wake up wondering if Kassams will fall. It’s very hard to live here. Our parents are scared to let us go out. Sometimes we don’t even go to school. We are tense all the time. The government needs to help us. We don’t want to evacuate the city.
We thought we could live with them [the Palestinians], make peace with them, but they obviously don’t want to. We gave them Gush Katif [the Gaza settlements], now they want more. We don’t want a life like this, we want a normal life. They are people who love to kill.
We pray more, we ask that the Kassams stop.
Dvora Elbaz, Sderot municipality worker
Everyone wants help we cannot give. We put a smile on our faces at work, but on the inside, we feel so bad.
Now, who is thinking of work? Who is looking for money? We just want quiet. I know a lot of people who are living with pills because there is not other way. In another 10 years, the kids from here will be showing emotional and mental issues.
Every time a rocket falls and no one dies, we thank God.
Shlomi Montoriano, 37
I have two daughters, four and eight years old. At 9 p.m. I woke them up to get to the security room. Then we had to do that again at 11:30 p.m. Our life is not normal and we don’t act normal. It’s surreal.
I’m left-wing, but they [the Palestinians] are influencing me little by little against them. They don’t think of my side. I’d give them a state, but they are not going in that direction. We haven’t been hurt yet, but they want that to happen. They don’t want us here, they don’t want us in Netanya, they don’t want us in Jerusalem, they don’t want us in Tel Aviv.
This is not a suicide bomber that picks his target. Kassams fall where they may. We have to find a solution. They’re right and I’m right. I’m ready to give them a state, but they aren’t ready to let me have mine.
One night I told my daughters to not go to school the next day. That day, a Kassam fell at their school. We call these miracles.
Yaffa Rassad
I’m not leaving. I’ve lived here 50 years. I grew up here, married here, raised my kids and grandchildren. I buried my parents here.
You’re sitting there and you hear the alert, and you have no idea where it’s going to fall.
I pray all the time that God will do something. We have a lot of miracles here because no one has been killed. That’s what we say anyway.
Not everyone in Sderot has a bomb shelter in their apartment. There’s nowhere to run.
Jun 1, 2006
Buffeting the Economy
The world’s top private investor, American business tycoon Warren Buffett, bought a Galilee-based metal company for $4 billion in the largest deal of its kind in Israel’s history. The purchase set the Tel Aviv stock market soaring by 2.7 percent to a record high and came as a boost to the economy after five-and-a-half years of bloody conflict with the Palestinians.
“This is the greatest investor on the face of the earth,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Cabinet. “He is not Jewish, he is not a Zionist. He is only saying that he supports the Israeli economy and sees in it what we, even in our dreams, hesitate to say.”
The government came away with a whopping $1 billion in taxes, and it could be just the beginning. “It represents a high vote of confidence which will boost Israel’s status in the world and attract other foreign investors to follow Buffett’s lead,” said Israeli economist Shlomo Maoz.
The purchase of Iscar Metalworking, sight unseen, is the third largest deal Buffett has ever made and his first major acquisition outside the US. He has indicated that he may buy additional Israeli companies.
“We are investing $4 billion in an amazing band of people from Israel,” Buffett told 25,000 people at his annual meeting in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. “In another five or 10 years, we’ll look back and understand that what we declared here is one of the most significant things Berkshire Hathaway has ever done. Iscar will be a very large and important company.”
Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has investments in more than 60 companies, including H&R Block, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart. With an estimated worth of $40 billion, he is the second richest man in the world behind Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
“This is the greatest investor on the face of the earth,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Cabinet. “He is not Jewish, he is not a Zionist. He is only saying that he supports the Israeli economy and sees in it what we, even in our dreams, hesitate to say.”
The government came away with a whopping $1 billion in taxes, and it could be just the beginning. “It represents a high vote of confidence which will boost Israel’s status in the world and attract other foreign investors to follow Buffett’s lead,” said Israeli economist Shlomo Maoz.
The purchase of Iscar Metalworking, sight unseen, is the third largest deal Buffett has ever made and his first major acquisition outside the US. He has indicated that he may buy additional Israeli companies.
“We are investing $4 billion in an amazing band of people from Israel,” Buffett told 25,000 people at his annual meeting in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. “In another five or 10 years, we’ll look back and understand that what we declared here is one of the most significant things Berkshire Hathaway has ever done. Iscar will be a very large and important company.”
Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has investments in more than 60 companies, including H&R Block, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart. With an estimated worth of $40 billion, he is the second richest man in the world behind Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
The deal values Iscar Metalworking, a manufacturer of advanced cutting tools, at $5 billion (Buffet bought 80 percent) and makes its owners, Stef Wertheimer and his son Eitan, the richest family in Israel.
Wertheimer fled Nazi Germany at age 10 and came to Palestine. He dropped out of school at age 14, and later served in the Palmach, the commando force of the Haganah. He couldn’t even afford a lathe when he started Iscar in a backyard shed in 1952.
Iscar is located in an unlikely place—the Galilee, far away from powerful commercial hubs like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. But Wertheimer's vision is to develop neglected areas of the country, including both the Galilee in the North and the Negev in the South. He has built four industrial parks in these regions, with more than 150 export-oriented businesses.
Wertheimer sees business as a way of building bridges. “We've shown how an integrated workforce—Jews, Arabs and Druze working together—can make a difference,” he said.
Wertheimer tried to set up twin Palestinian and Israeli business parks in late 2000, with a café in the middle. But the Palestinian intifada (uprising) erupted shortly before the planned groundbreaking, and the plans were shelved.
“I would like to…commend the Wertheimer family.” Olmert said. “There are none like you—patriotic, lovers and builders of this country. And I am convinced that the great compensation you are receiving following the sale will be a lever for further development in the same pioneering, Zionist spirit that has always characterized this country."
Apr 1, 2006
Former Settlers Still Not Settled
The basketball game at the sports arena in Jerusalem was like any other raucous gathering of 1,500 teenagers, except for one thing: many of them had not seen their friends since being expelled from their homes in the Gaza Strip last August.
Shedding a spotlight on this scattered but not divided community, the championship game between the youth of former Gush Katif settlements Neve Dekalim and Netzer Hazani was a joyous reunion. “To see all the youth gathered together again from all over the country, it still makes my adrenaline flow,” organizer Shlomo Yulis said.
The city donated use of the sports stadium. A synagogue in Ra’anana (near Tel Aviv) provided financial support. Donations from the Institute for Hebraic Studies, a Christian organization in Houston, Texas headed by Richard Booker, paid for new uniforms and sneakers.
The night was one small bright spot for the former settlers. More than half a year after Israel’s pullout from Gaza, the statistics are grim: 50 percent still have no work; 330 families are still living in tents or hotels; and children are enrolled in temporary schools. According to the Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry, only 470 of the evacuees have found work.
In all, approximately 1,800 families were evacuated, a total of 8,500 people. Most of them put their belongings in storage—inaccessible containers—where they have remained since August. They spent the coldest months without their winter clothes and no money to buy some.
Those living in government-provided mobile homes endured the winter in the small, cold quarters, and several cannot afford to pay their heating bills. “At least the hotels have hot meals and heating,” Yulis noted. When they arrived at the Jerusalem Gold Hotel, Yulis and his wife Udi were told they would spend up to two weeks there. It’s been seven months.
They are facing another expulsion from the hotel, but their housing isn’t ready and they have no money. The compensation, which they have yet to receive for their Gaza home, was estimated at 800,000 shekels ($177,000).
“Whoever had a 300-square meter house before can’t hope to get more than a 40-square meter house now. With the money they promised me, I can barely buy an apartment on the third floor,” Yulis said. “I don’t have the money to have the life here that I had there. And that’s just me—imagine those families with seven or eight kids. They live in caravans [mobile homes] now.”
Disengagement Authority head Yonatan Bassi said that each settler was offered housing solutions, but not everyone accepted them. “I believe that by this upcoming Pesach [Passover], all, or almost all of the evacuees will be out of hotels,” he said. “But people must understand, the decision to stay in hotels has largely been their decision.”
Yulis concurs with that. His community wanted to stay together, not be assigned homes in far-flung towns. “They tell you, ‘You go there and you go there,’” he said. Many families, however, have remained together and are building their homes in small communities.
As one woman put it, “We feel like new immigrants in our own land.”
In a recent report, state comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss blasted the government’s handling of the evacuation and resettlement of the Gaza families. Government officials were guilty of “serious failures...that compromised the handling of the evacuees and caused unnecessary suffering,” the report said.
Regardless of the politics, teenagers at the basketball game savored the few moments together. “It’s not really a happy time,” said Hila Amitai, 19. “We’re scattered all over the country now and this reminds me of what was. I simply want what we had.”
Shedding a spotlight on this scattered but not divided community, the championship game between the youth of former Gush Katif settlements Neve Dekalim and Netzer Hazani was a joyous reunion. “To see all the youth gathered together again from all over the country, it still makes my adrenaline flow,” organizer Shlomo Yulis said.
The city donated use of the sports stadium. A synagogue in Ra’anana (near Tel Aviv) provided financial support. Donations from the Institute for Hebraic Studies, a Christian organization in Houston, Texas headed by Richard Booker, paid for new uniforms and sneakers.
The night was one small bright spot for the former settlers. More than half a year after Israel’s pullout from Gaza, the statistics are grim: 50 percent still have no work; 330 families are still living in tents or hotels; and children are enrolled in temporary schools. According to the Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry, only 470 of the evacuees have found work.
In all, approximately 1,800 families were evacuated, a total of 8,500 people. Most of them put their belongings in storage—inaccessible containers—where they have remained since August. They spent the coldest months without their winter clothes and no money to buy some.
Those living in government-provided mobile homes endured the winter in the small, cold quarters, and several cannot afford to pay their heating bills. “At least the hotels have hot meals and heating,” Yulis noted. When they arrived at the Jerusalem Gold Hotel, Yulis and his wife Udi were told they would spend up to two weeks there. It’s been seven months.
They are facing another expulsion from the hotel, but their housing isn’t ready and they have no money. The compensation, which they have yet to receive for their Gaza home, was estimated at 800,000 shekels ($177,000).
“Whoever had a 300-square meter house before can’t hope to get more than a 40-square meter house now. With the money they promised me, I can barely buy an apartment on the third floor,” Yulis said. “I don’t have the money to have the life here that I had there. And that’s just me—imagine those families with seven or eight kids. They live in caravans [mobile homes] now.”
Disengagement Authority head Yonatan Bassi said that each settler was offered housing solutions, but not everyone accepted them. “I believe that by this upcoming Pesach [Passover], all, or almost all of the evacuees will be out of hotels,” he said. “But people must understand, the decision to stay in hotels has largely been their decision.”
Yulis concurs with that. His community wanted to stay together, not be assigned homes in far-flung towns. “They tell you, ‘You go there and you go there,’” he said. Many families, however, have remained together and are building their homes in small communities.
As one woman put it, “We feel like new immigrants in our own land.”
In a recent report, state comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss blasted the government’s handling of the evacuation and resettlement of the Gaza families. Government officials were guilty of “serious failures...that compromised the handling of the evacuees and caused unnecessary suffering,” the report said.
Regardless of the politics, teenagers at the basketball game savored the few moments together. “It’s not really a happy time,” said Hila Amitai, 19. “We’re scattered all over the country now and this reminds me of what was. I simply want what we had.”
Mar 1, 2006
Islamic Revolution in Israel’s Backyard
Already surrounded by hostile Islamic nations, Israelis woke up one morning to find that Palestinians democratically legitimized a terrorist organization bent on the destruction of the Jewish state when Hamas swept to an overwhelming victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections. Hamas won 74 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council and has six more in its coalition, a majority that strikes fear into the hearts of Israelis who have been victims of Hamas terrorism over the last decade.
Palestinian Christians are concerned as well. “The green horse is riding from the Book of Revelation and next will come the angel of death,” a Palestinian believer who asked not to be named told israel today, referring to the color green which symbolMuslimizes Hamas.
The most ominous change expected in Palestinian society with Hamas at the helm is a heightened adherence to Islam. Mohammed Abu Tir, the Hamas minister of religion, told us that he wants to separate boys and girls in Palestinian schools, make headscarves mandatory for all women and establish Islamic Law in the territories.
Although laws could be vetoed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of the defeated Fatah party, Hamas will likely be able to muster the two-thirds needed to overturn a veto. Fatah holds 45 seats and small parties comprise the other 13 in the 132-member parliament.
Israel’s security establishment was caught totally off guard by the Hamas victory, reminiscent of the days leading to the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when the enemy build-up was ignored by military intelligence.
Fatah Falls From Grace
The Hamas victory was widely seen as a protest against Fatah, rather than a vote for the radical Islamic ideology of Hamas. The Palestinian public was fed up with rampant corruption in Fatah, which ruled the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its establishment in 1993 and misused billions of dollars in foreign aid.
“People voted for Hamas because they are sick of the one who works at the PA—He has a jeep, his wife has a jeep, and they have another jeep with a driver who takes the kids to school,” said a Palestinian. “These are the people who get through the checkpoints, while we all wait.”
By contrast, Hamas established a reputation for having “clean hands,” pouring money into welfare projects, charities and schools. The group also won popularity through deadly suicide bombings against Israel which were seen as acts of heroism.
In the end, Hamas delivered the goods and Mahmoud Abbas, who supports peace talks with Israel, did not. Polls show that about 80 percent of Palestinians credit the relentless Hamas’ campaign of violence for Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip. It was just as Israeli critics of the pullout predicted—it strengthened Hamas, and the Palestinian people responded by propelling the group into power.
Hussam al-Taweel, a Christian legislator in Gaza who was backed by Hamas during the elections, said that people were looking for a solution to social problems and an end to corruption. Hamas supported al-Taweel because, he said, the group “has an interest in showing the world that they do not have a rigid mentality” and can work with Christians.
Israel Seeks To Isolate Hamas
While Hamas has been sending mixed signals about the future of its military activities, the organization rejected international demands to recognize the Jewish state. Hamas spokesman Mushi al-Masri said the group “would do its best, with all its power, to smash the Zionist entity and replace it with an independent Palestinian state.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged world leaders to boycott Hamas unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel. “There is no negotiation here with Hamas about what it will and will not agree to,” she said. “The conditions here are very clear; the situation is black and white.”
So far, Hamas has been blacklisted by most of the international community. The US and European Union said they won’t deal with Hamas and are withholding funding to the PA. That could cost the PA near $1 billion a year in aid.
“To hell with the people in Europe and America!” said Arab Knesset (parliament) member Abdel Malik Dehamshe. “Who do they think they are? Do they think they can buy us with money?
The first crack in the international armor appeared when Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Hamas to Moscow for talks, to Israel’s indignation. “The Russian position is not accepted by the international community,” Livni said. “Part of the danger is going down the slippery slope of first talking, then starting to understand why, then supporting with money, then granting legitimacy.”
Israel plans to suspend $50 million in monthly tax payments to the Palestinians once Hamas forms the new government. But Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not close the door completely on peace talks. He said Israel would negotiate with Hamas if it nullifies its charter calling for Israel’s destruction, recognizes the Jewish state and renounces terrorism.
Hamas responded that it would consider a long-term cease-fire if Israel withdraws from all of the territories captured in the 1967 war, including Jerusalem’s Old City, home to the Western Wall and Temple Mount.
That is in keeping with Islamic ideology, which allows for a cease-fire until Muslims are strong enough to destroy their enemies. So the best Hamas can offer is a truce in exchange for Israel relinquishing the holiest places in Judaism. Needless to say, that is not going to happen.
Palestinian Christians Are Afraid
One element of the Hamas equation that has largely been overlooked by the international media is the plight of the Christian minority in the Palestinian territories. Al-Taweel said he doesn’t expect Islam to affect Palestinian Christians.
“They have the right to ask Muslim women to wear a headscarf,” he said. “But Christian women have the right to their own lifestyle. We expect Islam to respect Christianity. We are keeping our Christian faith and I think there is no fear we will suffer from any discrimination.”
However, several Palestinian believers said they expect the situation to get worse for all Christians, especially evangelicals. One believer from Ramallah had agreed to talk to us on the record, but fearing for his own safety and that of fellow Christians there, he later insisted on anonymity.
Already, tension has escalated. Pastors say they will take a much lower profile and believers will be forced to reevaluate where and even if they meet. Recently, two Muslim clerics visited an apartment where believers were holding a prayer meeting under the guise of being friends of the landlord. The believers prevented them from entering, finished the meeting fast and fled.
“The Islamic influence will be stronger in the West Bank and it will be harder for Christians,” another believer said. “For Christian evangelicals who are working with Muslims who came to faith it will be much worse. I’m concerned about the believers…They are really afraid; they don’t know what is happening.”
Another Christian said that while Hamas leaders say publicly that they won’t enforce Islamic Law, “their henchmen, the ones walking in the street—they will carry it out.”
Who Is Hamas?
Hamas has held the top statistics for the most suicide bombings, the most Israeli fatalities, and now, the most seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Between November 2000 to April 2004, Hamas carried out 425 attacks, killing 377 Israelis and wounding 2,076, according to the Israeli army.
Hamas, an acronym of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Islamic Resistance Movement), corresponds to an Arabic word meaning “fervor” or “zeal.”
Founded as an Islamic party in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (who was assassinated in an Israeli air strike in 2004), Hamas is indeed zealous, especially in its ideological opposition to the existence of Israel. Infamous now for perpetrating some of the most lethal attacks against Israelis, Hamas actually gained prominence among Palestinians for providing welfare and social services, and building schools and hospitals.
Israel supported Hamas financially during the first intifada (the uprising from 1987-1993), hoping to weaken the PLO and its leader Yasser Arafat. But this support backfired when, during the second intifada (2000-2004), Hamas spearheaded the violence against Israel.
The well-funded organization generously supported the families of suicide bombers from its estimated $70 million annual budget. Hamas receives funding from Palestinian “charities” in the West, and from Iran, Saudi Arabia and private backers in other Arab states.
Hamas began its reign of terror by executing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. It progressed to kidnappings and other attacks against Israeli soldiers, and then shootings and stabbings of Israeli civilians. Hamas entered the foray of suicide bombings in April 1993. Its most deadly attack was the bombing of a hotel in the coastal town of Netanya on March 27, 2002, in which 30 people were killed and 140 wounded while celebrating the Seder meal on the first night of Passover. Since 2002, Hamas militants in Gaza have been firing homemade rockets into communities in southern Israel.
According to Hamas, all the Land of Israel including Judea, Samaria and Gaza is as an inalienable Islamic waqf or religious inheritance, which can never be surrendered to non-Muslims. The group refuses to recognize Israel or use its name, instead referring to the nation as the “Zionist entity.” The organization calls for Israel’s destruction in its charter. Hamas dropped its call for the destruction of Israel from its electoral manifesto, though the group’s leaders called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” in campaign speeches.
Palestinian Christians are concerned as well. “The green horse is riding from the Book of Revelation and next will come the angel of death,” a Palestinian believer who asked not to be named told israel today, referring to the color green which symbolMuslimizes Hamas.
The most ominous change expected in Palestinian society with Hamas at the helm is a heightened adherence to Islam. Mohammed Abu Tir, the Hamas minister of religion, told us that he wants to separate boys and girls in Palestinian schools, make headscarves mandatory for all women and establish Islamic Law in the territories.
Although laws could be vetoed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of the defeated Fatah party, Hamas will likely be able to muster the two-thirds needed to overturn a veto. Fatah holds 45 seats and small parties comprise the other 13 in the 132-member parliament.
Israel’s security establishment was caught totally off guard by the Hamas victory, reminiscent of the days leading to the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when the enemy build-up was ignored by military intelligence.
Fatah Falls From Grace
The Hamas victory was widely seen as a protest against Fatah, rather than a vote for the radical Islamic ideology of Hamas. The Palestinian public was fed up with rampant corruption in Fatah, which ruled the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its establishment in 1993 and misused billions of dollars in foreign aid.
“People voted for Hamas because they are sick of the one who works at the PA—He has a jeep, his wife has a jeep, and they have another jeep with a driver who takes the kids to school,” said a Palestinian. “These are the people who get through the checkpoints, while we all wait.”
By contrast, Hamas established a reputation for having “clean hands,” pouring money into welfare projects, charities and schools. The group also won popularity through deadly suicide bombings against Israel which were seen as acts of heroism.
In the end, Hamas delivered the goods and Mahmoud Abbas, who supports peace talks with Israel, did not. Polls show that about 80 percent of Palestinians credit the relentless Hamas’ campaign of violence for Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip. It was just as Israeli critics of the pullout predicted—it strengthened Hamas, and the Palestinian people responded by propelling the group into power.
Hussam al-Taweel, a Christian legislator in Gaza who was backed by Hamas during the elections, said that people were looking for a solution to social problems and an end to corruption. Hamas supported al-Taweel because, he said, the group “has an interest in showing the world that they do not have a rigid mentality” and can work with Christians.
Israel Seeks To Isolate Hamas
While Hamas has been sending mixed signals about the future of its military activities, the organization rejected international demands to recognize the Jewish state. Hamas spokesman Mushi al-Masri said the group “would do its best, with all its power, to smash the Zionist entity and replace it with an independent Palestinian state.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged world leaders to boycott Hamas unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel. “There is no negotiation here with Hamas about what it will and will not agree to,” she said. “The conditions here are very clear; the situation is black and white.”
So far, Hamas has been blacklisted by most of the international community. The US and European Union said they won’t deal with Hamas and are withholding funding to the PA. That could cost the PA near $1 billion a year in aid.
“To hell with the people in Europe and America!” said Arab Knesset (parliament) member Abdel Malik Dehamshe. “Who do they think they are? Do they think they can buy us with money?
The first crack in the international armor appeared when Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Hamas to Moscow for talks, to Israel’s indignation. “The Russian position is not accepted by the international community,” Livni said. “Part of the danger is going down the slippery slope of first talking, then starting to understand why, then supporting with money, then granting legitimacy.”
Israel plans to suspend $50 million in monthly tax payments to the Palestinians once Hamas forms the new government. But Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not close the door completely on peace talks. He said Israel would negotiate with Hamas if it nullifies its charter calling for Israel’s destruction, recognizes the Jewish state and renounces terrorism.
Hamas responded that it would consider a long-term cease-fire if Israel withdraws from all of the territories captured in the 1967 war, including Jerusalem’s Old City, home to the Western Wall and Temple Mount.
That is in keeping with Islamic ideology, which allows for a cease-fire until Muslims are strong enough to destroy their enemies. So the best Hamas can offer is a truce in exchange for Israel relinquishing the holiest places in Judaism. Needless to say, that is not going to happen.
Palestinian Christians Are Afraid
One element of the Hamas equation that has largely been overlooked by the international media is the plight of the Christian minority in the Palestinian territories. Al-Taweel said he doesn’t expect Islam to affect Palestinian Christians.
“They have the right to ask Muslim women to wear a headscarf,” he said. “But Christian women have the right to their own lifestyle. We expect Islam to respect Christianity. We are keeping our Christian faith and I think there is no fear we will suffer from any discrimination.”
However, several Palestinian believers said they expect the situation to get worse for all Christians, especially evangelicals. One believer from Ramallah had agreed to talk to us on the record, but fearing for his own safety and that of fellow Christians there, he later insisted on anonymity.
Already, tension has escalated. Pastors say they will take a much lower profile and believers will be forced to reevaluate where and even if they meet. Recently, two Muslim clerics visited an apartment where believers were holding a prayer meeting under the guise of being friends of the landlord. The believers prevented them from entering, finished the meeting fast and fled.
“The Islamic influence will be stronger in the West Bank and it will be harder for Christians,” another believer said. “For Christian evangelicals who are working with Muslims who came to faith it will be much worse. I’m concerned about the believers…They are really afraid; they don’t know what is happening.”
Another Christian said that while Hamas leaders say publicly that they won’t enforce Islamic Law, “their henchmen, the ones walking in the street—they will carry it out.”
Who Is Hamas?
Hamas has held the top statistics for the most suicide bombings, the most Israeli fatalities, and now, the most seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Between November 2000 to April 2004, Hamas carried out 425 attacks, killing 377 Israelis and wounding 2,076, according to the Israeli army.
Hamas, an acronym of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Islamic Resistance Movement), corresponds to an Arabic word meaning “fervor” or “zeal.”
Founded as an Islamic party in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (who was assassinated in an Israeli air strike in 2004), Hamas is indeed zealous, especially in its ideological opposition to the existence of Israel. Infamous now for perpetrating some of the most lethal attacks against Israelis, Hamas actually gained prominence among Palestinians for providing welfare and social services, and building schools and hospitals.
Israel supported Hamas financially during the first intifada (the uprising from 1987-1993), hoping to weaken the PLO and its leader Yasser Arafat. But this support backfired when, during the second intifada (2000-2004), Hamas spearheaded the violence against Israel.
The well-funded organization generously supported the families of suicide bombers from its estimated $70 million annual budget. Hamas receives funding from Palestinian “charities” in the West, and from Iran, Saudi Arabia and private backers in other Arab states.
Hamas began its reign of terror by executing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. It progressed to kidnappings and other attacks against Israeli soldiers, and then shootings and stabbings of Israeli civilians. Hamas entered the foray of suicide bombings in April 1993. Its most deadly attack was the bombing of a hotel in the coastal town of Netanya on March 27, 2002, in which 30 people were killed and 140 wounded while celebrating the Seder meal on the first night of Passover. Since 2002, Hamas militants in Gaza have been firing homemade rockets into communities in southern Israel.
According to Hamas, all the Land of Israel including Judea, Samaria and Gaza is as an inalienable Islamic waqf or religious inheritance, which can never be surrendered to non-Muslims. The group refuses to recognize Israel or use its name, instead referring to the nation as the “Zionist entity.” The organization calls for Israel’s destruction in its charter. Hamas dropped its call for the destruction of Israel from its electoral manifesto, though the group’s leaders called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” in campaign speeches.
Ramallah Mayor: Christian, Female and Backed by Hamas
Janet Michael is exceptionally nonchalant about being elected mayor as a Christian in an Islamic city and as a female in a male-dominated society. Nevertheless, without any political experience under her belt, Michael was elected mayor of Ramallah, the first female to ever hold the post.
Barely noticed by the rest of the world, Michael, 61, slipped into office on Dec. 29 when she was chosen as the city leader, partly thanks to backing from an unlikely ally: the Islamic terror group turned political party, Hamas.
And Michael is similarly unconcerned about the future for Christians in the city with Hamas running the parliament. “I don’t think there will be any difficulties,” she told said. “I think the people here are a little bit open.”
The 15-person city council, including three Hamas members, chose Michael to lead the city. Although she ran on an independent ticket, she has been associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a radical PLO faction. But she maintains that city work does not take sides.
“Here in the municipality our work is not about politics; we give services to people,” Michael said. “We’ve lived all our lives with Muslims. They are our neighbors and friends.”
The backing of Christians by Hamas isn’t new—the organization backed a Christian legislator in Gaza for the January parliamentary elections. And a Palestinian woman obtaining a prominent role also isn’t new: Hanan Ashrawi is known as one of the most articulate Palestinian spokespersons and appears on international television regularly.
But unlike Ashrawi, Michael is not known outside of the Palestinian territories. She is a retired headmistress of a girls’ school in Ramallah and has now set her sights on the city in which she was born and raised.
“I found that following my retirement as headmistress, I can do this job and I’d like this city to be better than it is,” she said. And how did she get elected with no experience in the political arena? “The city is not that big and I’m known in the city.”
Born and raised in Ramallah in a Greek Orthodox family, Michael earned her teaching degree at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon and has been a principal and science teacher since 1975 in Ramallah.
She says her priorities in office are to give the municipality a new face; to provide good services to the people; to improve the local economy and to look for outside investors for the city.
Michael insists that Ramallah and the Palestinian people in general are liberal compared to other Arab nations, but they rebelled against international castigation of Hamas. “I think the world helped Hamas win, by talking about them,” Michael said. “They had a slogan: ‘Israel says no, America says no. What are you going to say?’”
Ten percent of the Ramallah population is Christian. Michael said that the status of Christians would remain relatively unchanged under a Hamas-led parliament.
“We Christians wear normal clothes. Hamas maybe won’t like this, or girls to go to parties, and dancing. Restaurants are scared [to sell alcohol], that’s why people are scared of Hamas,” she said. “Anyway, we wait and see—we can’t say now, maybe in a year. I don’t think they’re that bad.”
Barely noticed by the rest of the world, Michael, 61, slipped into office on Dec. 29 when she was chosen as the city leader, partly thanks to backing from an unlikely ally: the Islamic terror group turned political party, Hamas.
And Michael is similarly unconcerned about the future for Christians in the city with Hamas running the parliament. “I don’t think there will be any difficulties,” she told said. “I think the people here are a little bit open.”
The 15-person city council, including three Hamas members, chose Michael to lead the city. Although she ran on an independent ticket, she has been associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a radical PLO faction. But she maintains that city work does not take sides.
“Here in the municipality our work is not about politics; we give services to people,” Michael said. “We’ve lived all our lives with Muslims. They are our neighbors and friends.”
The backing of Christians by Hamas isn’t new—the organization backed a Christian legislator in Gaza for the January parliamentary elections. And a Palestinian woman obtaining a prominent role also isn’t new: Hanan Ashrawi is known as one of the most articulate Palestinian spokespersons and appears on international television regularly.
But unlike Ashrawi, Michael is not known outside of the Palestinian territories. She is a retired headmistress of a girls’ school in Ramallah and has now set her sights on the city in which she was born and raised.
“I found that following my retirement as headmistress, I can do this job and I’d like this city to be better than it is,” she said. And how did she get elected with no experience in the political arena? “The city is not that big and I’m known in the city.”
Born and raised in Ramallah in a Greek Orthodox family, Michael earned her teaching degree at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon and has been a principal and science teacher since 1975 in Ramallah.
She says her priorities in office are to give the municipality a new face; to provide good services to the people; to improve the local economy and to look for outside investors for the city.
Michael insists that Ramallah and the Palestinian people in general are liberal compared to other Arab nations, but they rebelled against international castigation of Hamas. “I think the world helped Hamas win, by talking about them,” Michael said. “They had a slogan: ‘Israel says no, America says no. What are you going to say?’”
Ten percent of the Ramallah population is Christian. Michael said that the status of Christians would remain relatively unchanged under a Hamas-led parliament.
“We Christians wear normal clothes. Hamas maybe won’t like this, or girls to go to parties, and dancing. Restaurants are scared [to sell alcohol], that’s why people are scared of Hamas,” she said. “Anyway, we wait and see—we can’t say now, maybe in a year. I don’t think they’re that bad.”
The Two Faces of Palestinians Christians: In the territories, Palestinian Christians are comprised of traditional Orthodox or Catholics and more recently, charismatic born again Christians, many of them Muslim converts to Christianity. Traditional Christians tend to live in general peace with Muslims while the born again Christians are experiencing major persecution.
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